Traffic downtown Grande Prairie was brought to a standstill Wednesday afternoon when a traffic signal became permanently red. While it was the lights at the intersection of 100th Avenue and 101st Street where construction is currently underway, the City says that wasn’t to blame.
The signal had been on a permanent green to let traffic through while work was being done, but it switched to permanent red after it was overrode by an emergency services vehicle around 3:45 p.m. The city says it got wind of the issue through social media around 4:05 p.m., and a manual re-set fixed it by 4:30 p.m.
Traffic engineering supervisor Robin Hutchinson says this was an isolated problem, and her department has taken steps to make sure it won’t happen again. She thanks the people who brought it to their attention, so they could fix it quickly.